Last week we asked our community on Facebook to answer this question: Which was harder: writing your book or marketing your book?

Here’s what they had to say:

Rae Stonehouse: I’ve written five self-published, self-help books. I’m going to say that writing them was harder than marketing them, only because I didn’t do a good job with marketing. I naively thought that if I created a website and a social media presence, the world would come running to buy my books. I believe that writing a book will take 30% of your time and marketing it will take the other 130%. For my style of book, I would say that marketing is more time-consuming. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is harder. I have all the skills that I need to remarket. Finding the time to do so will likely be harder.
Rae A. Stonehouse “Tips, Techniques & Solutions for Everyday Challenges” http://raestonehouse.com

Myrtle Siebert: Writing took time and revisions more time. At least I knew what I was attempting to accomplish. But the marketing aspect that followed was new, unknown, and for a newly self published author next to impossible. Still is the hardest step.

Danielle Vincent: The revisions were still the most difficult part for me, because without it, the book will just not be published at all. If you don’t write it, who cares? The world is full of books. But once you get to revisions, you’ve already sunk so much into it that you’re committed to the release.

But once it’s released, if it doesn’t sell, well, that is just life. At least you made the mark and put the thing into the world. Marketing has been hard, but only hard in its slowness. I can handle things that require stubbornness, but the editing was SO DAMN EMOTIONAL, and took so damn long. Now that I am on my second book, I keep dreading the edits phase.

The hardest part of the edits was when people told me it was a great book, and I just doggedly refused to believe that I was a good writer with a unique thing to say. I felt like such a hack, even though people were telling me otherwise. It wasn’t until my publisher said, “Are you questioning my integrity? Are you questioning my professionalism? I’m not publishing this book because I like you. I want to make money.”

Finally, I got it. No one has anything to gain by putting out a mediocre book.

We want to hear from you! Share your own answer in the comments below.

1 Comment on "Round-Up Question of the Week: Which was Harder: Writing Your Book or Marketing Your Book?"

This probably shouldn’t be an either or question. They “should both be full of joy. It is our business to find where our strengths are in both endeavors and concentrate as much as possible in those strong areas so here’s to bring ourselves as much pleasure in our careers as we possibly can. I know authors who struggle desperately with both of these processes. One of the tricks to making both more pleasurable is to write down goals – – the small ones as well as the big one. And then when we reach the ones on the lower level of the ladder, to celebrate in some small way, or large. Even more important is to create that success down, preferably in the double purpose media kit that I propose in my book The Frugal Book Promoter. The idea is to visit it now and then to see successes, revel in them, and celebrate. Doing so will help us find more joy in both processes and help us see how one really truly rubs the back of the other

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